Movie Reviews

Bulldog, Dick, Holmes and Shadow

Annie Van Auken | Planet Earth | 11/20/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"MILL CREEK ENTERTAINMENT multi-movie packs are fairly priced and of good quality. These twenty unrestored public domain film transfers vary from very good to sometimes fair-- none are ever unwatchable.

The "legendary detectives" in this DVD pack are all derivative movie serials of the 1930s and '40s.

"The Shadow" was a half-hour radio series first broadcast 7/31/30. Originally only the narrator of mystery stories, by 1937 "Shadow" Lamont Cranston (now portrayed by a young Orson Welles) had become an integral character in each episode aired. The program's 24 year run ended the day after Christmas, 1954. The three Shadow films here were first seen in 1937, at the height of the radio show's popularity.

"Bulldog Drummond" was created in 1920 by British author Herman McNeile, who published under the pseudonym "Sapper." The Drummond stories were directly influenced by "noir" detectives then popular in American fiction, and are considered the forerunner of James Bond. The half-dozen movies in this set that feature this character are all from the late 1930s.

"Dick Tracy" was a comic strip crimefighter brought to life by the pen and imagination of Detroit newspaper artist Chester Gould, in October 1931. Gould worked on the strips until he retired in 1977. Other artists are still producing the stories 76 years after the series' inception.In the comics, police detective Tracy wooed future wife Tess Trueheart for 18 years, finally marrying her on Xmas Day, 1949. During that span, square-jawed Tracy came up against such legendary bad guys as B-B Eyes, Flattop Jones, Pruneface, Haf and Haf, 88 Keys, Mr, Crime, Sphinx, Pear-shape and Faceless Redrum. The Dick Tracy radio show aired from 1935 to '48. In the movies Tracy was portrayed primarily by Ralph Byrd (beginning in '37). Byrd stayed with the series until it ended after a brief run on early television.

"Sherlock Holmes," the most renowned fictional detective of all, was the creation of Scottish author and physician Arthur Conan Doyle. The Holmes stories were published in various British magazines beginning in 1887. Over the years Conan Doyle tried more than once to kill off the character, but public clamor made him reconsider. Doyle wrote four novels and fifty-six short stories starring Holmes and Dr. John Watson, his friend and cohort in adventure, right up until the knighted author's death in 1930.

MILL CREEK's SUSPENSE! 20 Movie Pack would make a fine companion piece to this DVD set.

.Parenthetical numbers preceding titles are 1 to 10 viewer poll ratings found at a film resource website.